Voters in Dallas and Tarrant counties will continue to be able to vote at any polling place in their counties. The Texas Secretary of State’s office notified both counties last week that they had been granted permission to continue participating in the state’s countywide voting program. The program allows voters…
This year, as in past years, the Dallas Police Department asked revelers to refrain from celebratory gunfire because it’s illegal, dangerous and punishable by a fine and jail time. But, between 10:00 p.m. December 31, 2019 and 2:00 a.m. January 1, 2020, DPD recorded 933 calls reporting random gunfire – 16 more than during the same period last New Year’s Eve.
The Dallas Police Department promised to implement a “data-driven approach to reduce violent crime” and laid out crime-reduction goals for the upcoming year in a report released Thursday. Mayor Eric Johnson demanded the report be released by the end of 2019, a particularly violent year in Dallas. In a statement released…
Julian Castro, the former mayor of San Antonio, ended his presidential campaign Thursday morning. Castro, the only remaining Texan in the race, announced the news Thursday morning on Twitter, pledging to “keep fighting for an America where everyone counts.” In a video posted on Twitter Thursday morning, Castro highlighted several…
Everyone, it seems, has something good to say about plans for the city’s new jail diversion center. District Attorney John Creuzot called it a “solution” to the city’s continued criminalization of homelessness and mental illness. “Ditto,” said Lynn Richardson, chief of the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office, which represents many…
We start this new decade in the city with two facts staring us in the face. Fact One: Truly powerful new ideas are on the table right now that will help us take away the sharp bite of social inequity, greatly reduce crime and, most important and valuable, harvest the…
We’re here, on New Year’s Eve, not to praise 2019, but to bury it. It’s been … a year. The Cowboys failed in the most Cowboys of ways. Donald Trump came back to American Airlines Center, as president this time. We’ve got a new mayor, a new district attorney and…
Don’t get a ticket. Buses, light rail and the Trinity Railway Express are all free Tuesday night beginning at 6 p.m., thanks to MillerCoors. But you’ll need to keep your eyes on the clock after that midnight kiss. Buses and trains are operating on a normal weekday schedule. That means most…
On the afternoon of New Year’s Day, right about the time the Dallas Stars face off against the Nashville Predators at the Cotton Bowl, the forecast calls for a chance of rain and temperatures in the mid 50s — not balmy, maybe, but well above freezing. Hockey, not to put…
Let’s get this one straight before it rolls away from us. A certain amount of misrepresentation is going on about the meaning of a federal judge’s recent action dismissing the city as a defendant in a civil lawsuit arising from the Amber Guyger/Botham Jean murder case. This is not a…
Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy Latorrez Jones gently smooths his dog Hawk’s ears and chest fur. Hawk’s jaws lock firmly on the thick burlap arm guard wrapped around Deputy Kevin Ross’ arm. As Ross pulls back, simulating an attempt to escape, Hawk’s grip holds steady. He’s been trained to bite once,…
Given the anti-choice laws being passed around the rest of the country — in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri and elsewhere — there’s a temptation for abortion rights supporters in Texas to take a deep breath. The 2019 edition of the Texas Legislature didn’t pass a total ban on abortion. Neither…
Ask 10 Rangers fans about Ian Kinsler, who retired last week after a decade-plus in Major League Baseball, and you’ll get 10 different answers. Most of them will be bad, something about his lack of hustle maybe or his propensity for popping up. Eventually, someone will bring up his comments…
It was quite a year for the Dallas police. The city recorded 200 murders, the most in over a decade. The governor sent state troopers to South Dallas amid complaints that the city’s police department is understaffed, drawing accusations of overpolicing from local community leaders. Not to mention the conviction…
Being a Dallas sports fan in 2019 is about hope. The good kind that comes from the city’s best-ever crop of young athletes and the bad kind that leads you down the path to still, after all these years, being disappointed by the Cowboys. One of these days, one of…
The headline was jarring: “Trump has veered dangerously from the conservative legacy of protecting our air, water and natural resources.” Conservative legacy? Veered? I must have missed something. I read the rest carefully. Trammell S. Crow, a wealthy environmental and education philanthropist who lives in Dallas, said in an op-ed…
Sunlight seeps into the small commercial kitchen in the Muslim American Society’s Islamic Center as Maissa Alkhadir stirs a steaming pot of rice and potatoes. Reaching to a shelf above the stove, she grabs a plastic canister of dried spices and sprinkles some into the pot. Once it’s done, she…
Among a few other things, 2019 in North Texas was the year of the crime story. On a weekly basis, cops, crime and courts took center stage, dominating local news, Dallas’ municipal elections and conversation. As the calendar turns over to 2020, let’s take a look at the stories to…
Aaron Dean, the former Fort Worth police officer who shot and killed a black woman in her home, was indicted by a grand jury for murder on Friday morning. Atatiana Jefferson, 28, was playing video games with her 8-year-old nephew in October when a neighbor called a non-emergency police hotline…
Going green just got a little bit easier for Dallas residents. This week, a non-profit dedicated to helping homeowners convert to solar electricity launched a Dallas operation.
You probably don’t need reminding, but we’ve been here before. A talented but underperforming Cowboys roster led by Jason Garrett has arrived at a mid- to late-December crossroads. Their record isn’t great, but a single win will get them into the NFL playoffs, a place where strange and stranger things…
Texas prosecutors aren’t giving juries the opportunity to put people to death and, even when they do, jurors aren’t going for it. Those are the big takeaways from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty’s annual roundup of Texas’ death row development. Only nine of the 21 executions scheduled…
